Purple Saxifrage, Saxifraga oppositifolia

In the Museum

The Canadian Museum of Nature has approximately 400 specimens of Saxifraga oppositifolia in its collection. Nature's collection of Canadian Arctic plants is the best in the world.

Nature keeps vascular plants, like Saxifraga oppositifolia, mounted by strips of linen on archival paper, and stored in special steel herbarium cabinets in a cool, dry room.

Research Scientist: Susan Aiken is a botanist at the Canadian Museum of Nature. She has visited areas above the treeline (where purple saxifrage grows) during 11 summers of fieldwork. She has studied many of the approximately 350 species of Arctic plants and particularly the more than 40 species of grasses that occur in the Arctic islands, and the many microhabitats the various species indicate, for many years. She has also worked with museum staff Dr. Lynn Gillespie, Dr. Laurie Consaul and Cheryl McJannet on an updated study of Arctic Saxifragaceae.